Charges were upgraded against a hit-and-run driver who mowed down a victim on a busy lower Manhattan sidewalk and narrowly missed a woman pushing her baby in a stroller, prosecutors said Wednesday in court.
Tiffany Murdaugh, 34, of Philadelphia, now faces up to five years in prison if convicted of assault in the 1st degree for the 8 a.m. wreck on Beekman Street April 13.
Driving a Dodge Challenger, Murdaugh sped onto a crowded sidewalk at 25 miles per hour to pass the gridlocked cars, authorities said.
“Those pedestrians include a mother walking her two young children to a nearby school on that block and the mother actually pushes the children into Beekman Street which is full of traffic at that time to save them,” said Assistant District Attorney Philip Gary.
“The defendant’s vehicle does not slow down, does not swerve and continues driving down the sidewalk until it runs over the victim – in this case a 37-year-old woman on her way to work,” said the prosecutor, arguing for a bail increase from $2,500 to $100,000.
Surveillance video captured the collision that threw the victim into the air, shattering her knee and slicing her face.
Once the traffic cleared, Murdaugh merged back into the street and fled the scene, authorities said.
A half hour later, Murdaugh lost her cool again, repeatedly ramming into another vehicle trying to parallel park in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
When the victim in the second accident called the police, Murdaugh took off on foot, leaving her car at the scene, court papers show.
Cops later tracked down Murdaugh to her home in Philadelphia, and she turned herself in May 19. “I blacked out and don’t recall anything until the fender bender in Brooklyn,” she told police. “I did smoke some marijuana, it must have been laced with something.”
Murdaugh, who works as an apprentice in the cement mason’s union, said she’d just wrapped up a double shift and was exhausted when she had the collision in Manhattan.
Justice Gregory Carro did not increase Murdaugh’s bail. She pleaded not guilty to assault, reckless endangerment and leaving the scene of an accident.
“Pedestrians have the right to feel completely safe and secure on our sidewalks and when crossing the street, which is why the conduct this driver is accused of is so egregious,” said District Attorney Cyrus Vance. “There is no place for this type of recklessness in New York City.”
She was originally charged with assault in the 2nd degree and faced two years in jail.
